The top surface of the bar is arguably the
most important part of the construction of any bar. Given the limited
budget there were no fancy materials used, and the only part not available
at the local Home Depot was the "Chicago bar rail" molding along
the front.

The middle layer is split between birch
veneer and rough with the veneer being used where the bar well is (towards
the back). This gives a nice surface for the bottom of the well
without requiring as much birch veneer (which is expensive when compared to
the rough plywood!)

At the back edge there is a piece of corner
molding that covers the edges of the plywood layers and overlaps about 1/2
inch to make a nice edge for the bar well.

The bar rail molding (not drawn very well
above) is called a "Chicago Bar Rail" and was ordered from Outwater
Architectural Products. The molding was shipped in two 8 foot pieces and is about 4 inches wide and 2
tall. It's meant to be installed at an angle to give a slightly
downward slope. To accomplish this we offset the edges of the layers.

Finishing

All the wood on the bar (and in fact the
whole basement) was stained using Minwax Red Maple color wood stain, applied
with a brush, with a second coat applied with a rag. All the wood was
then coated with Minwax Satin Finish Polyurethane. The top of the bar
was given an additional 4 coats (for a total of 5 coats) of polyurethane.